Faith took a step back towards the door. “Um, Drust… Willa is… with child.”
Shock and dread froze his features as he stared at her for a long moment.
“What? No! She canna be with child!”
“Well, she is…”
“Whose child?”
“Well… I assumed yours. You did ummm… consummate your relationship?”
“Aye. Aye, but this… this wasna supposed to happen!Bloody, bloody hell!” He pushed his hands through his hair and paced across the room. “It’s no’ what I wanted. It could kill her. Do ye ken it could kill her? What if I’ve killed her?” He paused long enough to drive his fist into the wall. “And I doona want to be a father! I’m no’ meant to be a father! That’s Bren’s bloody job, no’ mine!”
He kicked a chair, sending it flying across the room and crashing into the wall. It shattered into several pieces.
Bren pulled his wife protectively into his arms and glared at his brother.
“Pull yerself together, man! What’s done is done. Yer to be a father, and that’s that. Everything will be fine.”
Drust returned to his angry pacing. “I was so careful, only once! I lost control just once. One blasted time and this is what comes of it!” He hit the wall again, uttering a stream of vile curses as he did so.
“Only once?” Faith asked, incredulous.
Bren rolled his eyes at his brother’s outburst and sighed. “I think he means only once did he spill his seed inside her, lass.”
“Oh. Well, that’s all it takes.”
Bren smiled at his wife. Indeed, that was all it had taken for them to conceive. But unlike his brother, Bren was overjoyed at the new life he and Faith had created together. He reached out to cup her slightly rounded stomach in one big hand, pulling her into his arms.
“Let’s give him some time. He’ll come around… eventually. I hope.”
The door cracked open and Maggie stuck her head in and beamed at Drust.
“Ye can go in now.” Her face was aglow with a joyful smile bright enough to light the room.
Drust wanted to wipe it away.
“I trust Faith has told ye the good news?”
Faith quickly intercepted whatever inappropriate thing Drust was about to say in return by taking Maggie’s arm and turning her around.
“Let’s go and give them some privacy, shall we?”
Bren shot his brother a warning glare before following the women out of the room. Drust took several deep breaths, and waited several long minutes before he crossed the hall and opened the door to the room he shared with Willa. She was sitting on the bed, fixing her hair where it had come undone from its ties. She looked up when the door opened and her expression immediately turned to one of wariness.
He closed the door behind him, a little too hard.
“Did ye ken, before today?”
She looked down at her lap. “Yes.”
His features tightened into a mask of rage.
“And ye didna see fit to tell me?” He took several angry strides closer. “Answer me, lass!”
She stood and faced him, hands clenched in small fists at her sides. “How dare you speak to me like that! I tried to tell you, more than once, but you haven’t exactly made it easy!” She stood, trembling with so much strong emotion. “I will not be sorry for this! I want this child, whether you meant to or not, you gave me this child! This is supposed to be one of the happiest days of my life, damn it, telling the man I love that he’s to be a father. But instead I get nothing but your anger!”
Aye, he was angry. Yesterday he had everything, and today he found out he could very well lose it all. He felt it churning inside him, bubbling up to the surface, making him want to strike out at something. He turned and put his fist through the wardrobe, the thick wood splintering. His knuckles came away bloody, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Aye, my anger! I didna want this! Everything was perfect, and now it’s gone all to hell!”
